What would I like to ask a libertarian? And a conservative? And a progressive?
"Libertarians and conservative Republicans love to refer to the opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence (the "DoI"), and especially quote the lines about "the laws of nature and of nature's God" and of the "inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
"And many who claim to revere the DoI suggest that today's political scene raises the same concerns and issues that the founders were dealing with.
"And yet the bill of particulars in the DoI, the list of 27 types of tyrannies imposed by King George, rarely gets mentioned or discussed.
" I ask you to please go through the list of particulars, and tell us who, if anyone is pushing any of those tyrannies today:
- Democrats,
- Republicans,
- the Private Sector, or
- No One - Not Applicable
From the Declaration of Independence:
1. He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
2. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
3. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
4. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
5. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
6. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
7. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
8. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
9. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
10. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
11. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
12. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
13. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
14. For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
15. For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
16. For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
17. For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
18. For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
19. For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
20. For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
21. For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments: *
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
22. For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. *
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
23. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
24. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. **
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
25. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
26. He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
27. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable
= = =
*In your answer, please take into consideration the current powers and exercise thereof of replacement in Michigan of governmental units with the Governor's appointees
**In your answer, please take into consideration environmental considerations and the effects of "free enterprise" on the environment
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